Big News...Designing Wise

I am going to be retiring at the end of October. I have thought LONG and HARD about this and tried to put it off as long as possible. However, it is time.

 See, my family and I are going to be adopting children with special needs, namely Downs Syndrome.  (If you are a regular reader of this blog you knew that. ;) ) With the two teenagers that I homeschool and ordering my life as well as I can (before we get a child placed with us), designing is one of those time consumers that I need to cut out now. While I have no idea when we'll get placed with a child, I don't want to have my teens thinking, "Mom, quit just because of the new kid." if you catch my drift. I am sorry to let any of you down. I really have enjoyed my time designing and getting to know some of you. Please, please follow me and our adventure on my here. Especially when we get our little one. You never know I may even create a kit here and there.

Again, I want to thank each and everyone of you who have said lovely comments, bought my products and made me enjoy designing. A very special thanks goes out to my wonderful CT; Hilly, Landi, Star, San, & Becca. They have been my backbone. One special lady deserves a special thank...Andi. She really was my right hand-gal. She helped make Alamama's Pressed Petals possible. Also, I will be around the digi-forums, I will always be a digi-scrapper first.

This Close

So, we just had our homestudy  a little over a week ago.  We thought we'd have the bathroom done in plenty of time.  Well, here's what our house looked like the morning of.  (This is clean compared to what it had looked like for days!)

The kitchen table...

Walk in and turn right and this is what you'd run into.

Outside the front door!

We did though.  Hubby was literally cleaning off the table when the contractor walked in!!  She totally understood and was cool with it. 

Catching up

Sorry to have neglected my blog for so long.  Life has been beyond full and busy.

So, here is a short catch up.

I think I finally found a diet plan that works for me!

I have cut carbs (the bad ones) and sugars almost out.  Easier then I thought.

When I do eat too much of them (which isn't much) my tummy feels yucky.

Basically here's what I eat:

Bkft: oat bran and oatmeal mixed, sweetened with honey and cinnamon.

Lunch: A shake-plain yogurt, flax milk, a handful or two of spinach, bananas, papaya, and other fruit that around and a handful of peanuts.

Snack: a granola bar or something healthy

Dinner:  Pretty much a healthy dinner.

If  I "eat" for lunch I will drink the shake for dinner.

Believe me I have cheated plenty of times, but for the most part I follow this.

I have also been very faithful to exercising.

 I mainly walk at least a mile and a half five times a week.  Many times I walk double that.  I do run and am doing more of it!  I have yet to get the runners high, but know it is good for me.  So that pushes me on.  I try to change up where I walk.  The mornings have been the best for me.

I have lost almost 10 lbs. in three months sticking to this plan!  I would love to loss another 10.

 In other news, God has been moving.

We needed to get a bigger table.  We were able to switch our table for a bigger one with a friend!  Now we have more room for the child we will be adopting!  Total win-win situation.  I don't know if I told you but a few months ago someone gave us a car!!!  TOTAL blessing!

As far as the adoption is concerned:

We are done with our training!!!  We had our last class last night.

It was so nice to walk into the room knowing that we are done with this part of the process.

Overall, we learned a lot.  There was just so much.  If you go through the training and still want to adopt you are really serious.  They really push fostering and that is a whole blog in itself!

We met some really nice folks and are going to be getting together with them.  We want to see how their journey turns out.

Here's what we have done:

apply

finer prints

training

background check

references coming back

Here's what we still need to do:

homestudy

exams

(I think that's it.)

The whole process can be an emotional one.  For me the biggest "thing" is the unknown.

Not knowing who our child will be, when they will come, how they are going to act, how old, what developmental level, the whole down syndrome...

God is good and He is in control.

School is back in session and we have changed it up a bit.

The kids are still studying at home, just differently.

DD is studying for her GED and DS is doing distance learning.

So far so good.

In an ideal world

I have heard more than once that having children "naturally" is much easier than adopting.
While so far it hasn't been harder, it is definitely a different journey.

In an ideal world, two people fall in love, marry and start a family.  When you're pregnant you know where your baby is, you know, about, when you will get to meet him or her. 
I find myself thinking about our child somewhere out there.
I pray that he/she is safe, not hungry, not scared.
I pray that it won't be too long of a wait until we get matched and get to pick up our child, for all of our sakes.

In an ideal world, there is you and your spouse in the whole bringing a child into the world and your lives process.  Throw in a doctor or two.
With adoption, there's a whole bunch of people.  People who have your paperwork sitting on their desk, etc.
You have to pass the ball back and forth, hoping they don't drop it along the way.

In an ideal world, there wouldn't be any adoptions.
It hit me that we are benefiting from others misfortunes.

Another thing is when you have a baby, most of the time people are happy for you.  They don't say "Oh, that's great that you are pregnant..." and try to up the anty one or two notches.
When adopting they do.  "Oh, that's great that you're adopting and you want a child with Down syndrome.  Would you take a child with (name any form mild to severe handicap, mental and physical)?"  They proceed to make you feel guilty for not wanting to open your arms to any and every situation.

Here's where my relationship with God and hubby come in.
I know God has called us to raise Down syndrome children.  I have tried to shake it and can't.
I know He has a child for us already.
I know He will keep that child safe and give us what we need for that child.

My hubby is my anchor.
He is keeping me focused and not feeling guilty for not taking in every child they offer.
As he put it, "I can't see us having a typical child.  I see us with a child with Downs."

I am glad I can trust God and rely on my hubby.

what can i say?

 i was feeling domestic and made homemade spinach noodles!  Certainly need to roll them flatter next time.  They took forever to cook.

Our application came in for teh adoption.  It's all filled out in the mail!

I have some nuggets about the adoption process I need to jot down, but it is late and I need to be in bed.

How it All Got Started

Not everyone is up for adopting.  For me it started at around age ten.  My cousin James was in the hospital.  Why, I don't remember.  What I do remember is his roommate was a baby with all of his limbs broken.  I just kept talking to him, touching him, etc.  I didn't even pay attention to my cousin.  (Sorry James.)  I asked my mom what happened to the baby.  She said that his mom (a big woman) sat in him and broke his limbs.  Whether that was the real story or not I asked my mom if we could take him home.  Of course we couldn't.  The baby never left my heart.  How could someone do that to a baby?  I felt so helpless.

Fast forward, to marriage.  Hubby knew going into our marriage that adoption was something I would like to do and we talked about it here and there.  Most of the time it wasn't something real in depth, more just two people in love talking about things they'd like to do.  Dreaming, some would call it. 

This is the part where it gets hard to explain without writing a book.  So I may just do point statements as to how God changed/worked on our hearts.

*The need to adopt became strong, for me, again about a year ago.
*I was really trying to figure out what God wanted for my life.  Where He wanted me to go.  I know I wanted to help people, preferably special needs kids. 
*I wanted to adopt.  Hubby didn't.
*I started checking into going to school and getting a degree.  While most of that seemed interesting, I didn't have total peace about it.
*We got a call about one of my pregnant cousins.  The Dr.s told her that her baby may have Down syndrome.  They may be weighing out their options.  (Later we found out differently.)  Right then and there, I said "That's it. We'll adopt the baby."  From then on I knew God wanted us to adopt a baby/child with Downs.  (I will write another post about how God changed my heart in that direction.)
*I talked more and more about adopting to hubby.  He wasn't budging.  He'd politely listened like I listened to his hunting stories.
*As adopting was REALLY weighing on my heart and not on hubby's, I cried out to God to change his heart or take this heavy burden away.  I prayed this over and over and over.
*Hubby started to seem more interested, ask pointed questions about adopting, about down syndrome, etc.  He was so interested I told him more than once, "Why don't you just say yes, you're so close."  I really thought he was going to say yes.
*The kids knew I wanted to adopt and at one point a few years ago they did too.  Then they weren't too hip with the whole idea, especially the Down syndrome part.
*I tried and tried to get involved volunteering with people/kids with special needs.  With no luck.  Until my dear friend gave me a number of a family here who have 5 special needs kids (4 adopted).  We met.  I got involved with Special Olympics.  God confirmed that love for kids with Downs.  Our son has even taken a liking to two of the boys.  We talk about one them all of the time.  He is a character!
*About 4 weeks ago, hubby changed his mind.  I was devastated.  Ready to give it up.  I cried.  I went for a drive.  I begged God to change one of our hearts.  I couldn't bear to carry this weight around if it wasn't going to happen.
*July 2nd, hubby and I went for a drive.  He told me that God moved on his heart during my grandpa's funeral and yes we can adopt.  I have to be honest here.  I didn't get all excited, kiss him or anything.  I was shocked.  He had just said no three weeks earlier.  I kept asking him, "You're for real?"  "You're not going to change your mind?"  He was for real.

We told the kids the on Wednesday.  They knew it was coming.  They had mixed reactions.  But I have already seen God move on their hearts prior to this.  So I know He'll move even more.

So, why adopt?  Why us?  Why now, when we are in our 40's or very close to it?  Why "mess up" our life?
Why not?

Please follow our adventure in this whole process.

BIG Announcement!!!

Some of you know already.
Some of you probably suspect this news.
Some will be surprised.
Some of you prayed along with me for this.

I can't tell you how this news fills my heart.
Without further ado...because I can't wait any longer...

God has answered many prayers and I know He will keep answering!

Adopting a baby/child with Down Syndrome is our hearts desire.